Who Is Coventry Being Built For?

Coventry should be a city with universities—not a temporary housing market with a city attached to it.

Coventry benefits from having two major universities.

Students support businesses, create jobs and bring investment into the city. Many remain after graduating and build their lives here.

But that does not place the universities, property developers or student-accommodation industry beyond scrutiny.

The question is whether Coventry has become too dependent on a constantly changing population—and whether housing and development are increasingly designed around people who may only remain for a few years.

A successful city needs new arrivals.

It also needs permanent residents who know their neighbours, support local institutions, raise families and feel responsible for the place they call home.

Coventry risks losing that balance.

A city shaped by student demand

Approximately 36,000 university students were living in Coventry at the time of the 2021 Census—an increase of 29% from around 28,000 in 2011.

Of those, approximately 9,730 were international students.

Total enrolment at Coventry University and the University of Warwick increased from approximately 56,100 in 2010/11 to 67,255 in 2020/21, although not every enrolled student lived within the city.

That is a population large enough to shape Coventry’s housing market, city centre and public services.

Between 2019 and the beginning of the 2023/24 academic year, 9,716 new purpose-built student bedrooms were delivered in Coventry.

Some of that development replaced empty or underused buildings. Purpose-built accommodation can also reduce pressure on family homes being converted into student HMOs.

But the council’s own housing evidence later acknowledged that Coventry already had a significant volume of student accommodation both completed and in the pipeline, while student numbers were expected to remain broadly static in the short term.

The council said the market needed to be monitored to maintain a balanced housing supply.

That raises an obvious question.

If student demand is no longer growing at the previous rate, why should Coventry continue sacrificing development land and buildings that could provide homes for permanent residents?

The conversion of communities

The effect is not confined to large accommodation blocks.

Coventry City Council’s own HMO planning document acknowledges what happens when ordinary family homes become concentrated shared accommodation.

It identifies risks including reduced social cohesion, weaker community participation, loss of family housing, noise, waste problems, parking pressure and businesses becoming increasingly focused on a narrower population.

These are not invented complaints.

They are impacts recognised in the council’s own evidence.

The council concluded that high HMO concentrations were already damaging the character and amenity of some neighbourhoods and that the problem was spreading.

Coventry’s private-rented sector increased from 20.6% of households in 2011 to 24.7% in 2021. Home ownership fell from 60.6% to 57.4%.

Not every private tenancy is temporary, and not every HMO houses students. Shared accommodation provides an affordable option for young workers and people on lower incomes.

But when family homes are repeatedly converted into short-term rentals, the character of a street changes.

Neighbours become temporary occupants. Tenancies change frequently. Responsibility becomes divided between tenants, landlords, managing agents and institutions.

A collection of occupied rooms is not automatically a community.

Who carries the cost?

Full-time student households are exempt from Council Tax under national law.

In 2016, Coventry City Council reported that approximately 3,800 student properties were exempt, reducing Council Tax revenue by around £3.2 million.

That figure is now ten years old and must be updated.

Students still use local roads, refuse services, parks, policing and other public infrastructure. That is not their fault; the exemption is created by national legislation.

But residents who remain in Coventry throughout their lives are entitled to know how much revenue is forgone and whether universities or central government adequately compensate the city.

Universities and student landlords receive the financial benefit.

Coventry should not quietly inherit every additional cost.

Transience is not a nationality

This argument must be stated accurately.

A British student who leaves after three years may be part of Coventry’s transient population. A person born overseas who settles here permanently, raises a family and contributes to the community is not.

Some overseas workers and international students stay for a limited period. Others make Coventry their permanent home.

The issue is not ethnicity.

It is whether the city increasingly depends upon a cycle of temporary residents, short tenancies and continual population turnover.

That distinction matters because permanent settlement and temporary demand affect a city differently.

Coventry currently lacks a clear public account showing how many residents are temporary, how frequently neighbourhood populations turn over and what effect that has on housing, revenue and local services.

Coventry needs a balance sheet

The universities regularly describe their economic contribution to Coventry.

Those benefits should be recognised—but they must be measured against the costs.

Coventry City Council should publish an annual account showing:

• the number and occupancy rate of student bedrooms;
• accommodation already approved or under construction;
• HMOs and student-exempt properties by ward;
• Council Tax revenue forgone through student exemptions;
• contributions made by universities and developers;
• family homes converted into or restored from HMO use; and
• the effect of population turnover on waste, enforcement and neighbourhood services.

Surplus student accommodation should be capable of conversion into suitable permanent housing where safe and practical.

Further large student developments should be approved only where current demand is demonstrated—not because student blocks have become the easiest way for developers to extract value from Coventry land.

The universities are important institutions.

But Coventry does not exist merely to provide them with accommodation, customers and infrastructure.

The interests of students, universities, landlords and developers must be balanced against those of residents who intend to remain here.

Coventry must be somewhere people put down roots—not simply somewhere they pass through.

A city without permanence eventually loses memory, responsibility and belonging.

Coventry should welcome students.

It must never forget who the city is ultimately meant to serve.

Sources: Coventry citywide population profile, Coventry HMO Development Plan Document, Coventry housing background paper, Council report on student-related tax relief.